The Plainsmen faced a great defense against USC (not the Lamecocks, the Men of Troy) and got punked. Ga Tech watched game tape and figured out that you can load the line and stop Auburn's running game, putting everything on Campbell, who is not going to beat a good defense with his arm, particularly considering AU doesn't have top notch wide outs. Auburn gets punked again. After that, what has Auburn done? 45-7 against Vandy. Hell, Navy pounded Vandy. How bad are they?!? 48-3 against WKU. Toss that one out as a 1-AA gimme. 28-21 aginst Tennessee, and they really beat them worse than the score appears. This one impressed me, I must admit, but UT proved you can throw on Auburn and made a major comeback. Then UT got POUNDED at home by Georgia. UT also went to overtime to beat USC (the Lamecocks, not the Men of Troy) at home. This makes the UT win less impressive in my mind. 10-3 at home over Arkansas. Again, not bad, but Arkansas can't throw the ball. It's easy to scheme against a one dimensional offense...and 10-3 isn't very impressive. 45-13 over a hapless MSU. So what? We could've beaten State so much worse than we did. In the end, Auburn was highly overhyped before the season. Now that they have gone on somewhat of a run (again, how impressive was it?), the media has jumped back on the bandwagon. I don't mean to suggest that Auburn is not a good team, I just don't think they are that good. They could prove me wrong this weekend, but here are some reasons I don't think it will happen... 1) The Florida game was our one laid egg for the year. We started to believe the "LSU is really good, and Florida is really bad" hype and got our butts handed to us. It happens; move on. 33-7 over USC (Lamecocks) on the road is moving on, I would say. Now we are back on track with our heads screwed on straight. The "psychological disposition" of the team (as Saban likes to say) may have been greatly improved by the loss to Florida, and EVERYONE knows this game is for all the marbles in the SEC West. Ole Miss put together a good game against Florida, but I am not convinced they are contenders. 2) Our defense is really good. Look at the stats. Remove the Florida fiasco (I know we can't, but it was the "laid egg;" see above), and no one can get anything going. UGA drilled UT in Knoxville and could only manage 10 in Tiger Stadium. I know they had their chances, but they couldn't get it done. Auburn is not nearly the offensive team that UGA is, mainly because Campbell is barely worthy of licking Greene's shoelaces. The Cadillac is a great back, but people thought that kid at USC was going to run on LSU. Didn't happen. Williams will get his yards, but don't look for 300 rushing yards from Auburn against us. Won't happen. Without a dominating running game, Auburn can't move the ball. Campbell is mediocre at best. They won't score more than 17 points. Won't happen. 3) Our offense is balanced enough to put up more than 17 points on Auburn's defense, which is a very good D with outstanding speed. The O-Line is going to be ready for these guys, and the line play is 80% of the offense. AU is going to try to shut down the run, but we will keep pounding out 3 or 4 yards a carry to set up play action like we did against USC. Clayton will get a few more touches and break a big one. Mauck is good enough with his arm and his legs to keep the chains moving since we won't get in third and long like we did against Florida. 4) Never, ever underestimate the value of a fired up Tiger Stadium crowd. I heard all of UGA's talk of "we've played in hostile environments"...Blah, Blah, Blahh. Just ask their kicker if the environment affects a game. Ask DJ Shockley. Ask David Greene. I, for one, am going to scream my guts out, and I think this crowd will be like the Florida game in 1997, not like the lame crowd of Florida 2003. GET FIRED UP, TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS THE BIG ONE. LOSE THIS ONE, AND KISS THE SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME BYE BYE. EVERYBODY HAS GOT TO BRING THE NOISE SATURDAY NIGHT IN DEATH VALLEY!!!!! BOTTOM LINE: LSU WINS A GRUDGE MATCH 24-14. UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, LSU IS YOUR DADDY. GEAUX TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LSU's pass defense is also very good. Corey Webster is an NFL cornerback. Jack Hunt went from "this guy is too small to play safety, but he is usually in position to make plays" as a junior to "this guy sure makes a lot of plays, and our defensive backfield seems to play much better with him in the game" as a senior. He is a key until the younger safeties learn the defense. We should be fine by next year without Hunt, but we need him this year. Travis Daniels, Blue Gay, and Ronnie Prude are all solid SEC cover guys. The linebackers have been a problem in pass coverage. Backs have been open out of the backfield, and the tight ends seem to create matchup problems. Mayes and Alexander are smaller and faster and should both be good cover guys, but Mayes has always had trouble thinking. Alexander seems to do a good job when I have paid attention. We do play a lot of nickel, but Turner has to step up as a cover guy. At 255 lbs. he's a load, but he has trouble, physically and mentally, in coverage. He's not Thomas Dunson, but he needs some work. We may see more of LeDoux this week. The pass rush is much better this year. Lavalais is very hard to block, even when doubleteamed, and he frees up Spears and Hill. Kirston Pittman is going to be a lot of fun to watch for a couple more years. If he puts on 30 lbs., watch out. He's got a motor and is super quick. I see Webster getting at least one pick against a confused Campbell.
Thats a good way to put it. I was quite under whelmed with him last year, but I've been very pleased with his play so far this season.
You have to remember that Hunt was a wide out his first couple of years. Last year he hadn't figured out that he had to hit people to survive as a safety in the SEC. He gained some weight and has gotten much more aggressive this year. He may not be an NFL safety, but he is a solid college safety in Saban's D.
If you think this team is anything like the team during the first two games, you are in for a HUGE suprise at 6:45 on Saturday. What Tech figured out in that game is how to slant the D-Line like USC did. We have figured out how to over come that since then. You can easily spin our wins and loses to look worse than they are, but what has LSU done? They laid an egg against Florida, whooped up on some bad to average comeptition, and beat Georgia. Georgia pretty much laid an egg that game, that is the worst I've seen them play in a big game, and LSU only beat them by 7. Auburn will have the fully health running game Saturday, the one that could run for 150 yards in the first half against Arkansas, not the injured one that stalled in the second. Its all in who you play. Auburn had the ranked 2 defense after playing Western Kentucky. Its all in who you play...... After those 2 losses at the begining of the year, this team is playing lights out, them against the world. The stats and rankings won't do any good come game time(just like last year), this team will be ready to play. Mauck hasn't looked great vs good defenses, we will see what he will be capable of against an improved secondary.
No no no I don't want Pittman putting on more weight. Look what happened to Hill. The smaller athletic DE who can rush the hell out of the passer is what we need.
How many times are we going to have to hear this tired argument? Blah, blah Florida, blah, blah, you are in for a surprise. Blah, blah, blah.
